The meaning of being "part of the United Kingdom" has never been clearer. It means being subject to the sovereign jurisdiction of the Crown in Parliament of the United Kingdom and, unlike an Overseas Territory or a Crown Dependency, returning members to the House of Commons. That's it.
If the sovereign will of that Parliament were that Northern Ireland should stay in the Customs Union while Great Britain left it, so that the United Kingdom itself would no longer be a customs union, well, then, that would be that.
Northern Ireland would stay in the Customs Union while Great Britain left it, so that the United Kingdom itself would no longer be a customs union. But it would still be the United Kingdom, because that is nothing other than whatever the Crown in Parliament of the United Kingdom says that it is at any given time.
In the same way, the secession of anywhere, such as Scotland, would not, and in 1922 did not, affect the definition of the United Kingdom, which is nothing other than the territory that is subject to the sovereign jurisdiction of the Crown in Parliament of the United Kingdom, and which returns members to the House of Commons, at any given time.
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